UK pledges to combat violence against Afghan women

BAAG welcomes this week's announcement that the UK government is to do more to combat violence against women and girls in Afghanistan.

UK Development Secretary Justine Greening made the pledge as part of a wide-ranging series of new programmes for women and girls in the world's poorest countries.

Ms Greening said that for the first time, her department's country plan for Afghanistan would place greater emphasis on initiatives to tackle violence against females. She added that the UK wanted to ensure that the gains made for women and girls in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban were not lost, but could be built upon.

BAAG Director Jawed Nader said "Afghanistan has some of the worst statistics on violence against women in the world. BAAG has been calling on both the Afghan government and its international partners to take urgent steps to address this problem, which blights the lives of so many Afghan females. We welcome the UK government's pledge and hope it leads to positive change."

In 2011, a Thomson Reuters Foundation survey named Afghanistan "the most dangerous place to be a woman". According to some statistics, more than 80 per cent of Afghan women suffer domestic violence. Rape victims and those fleeing forced marriage or domestic violence are often jailed for "moral crimes".